SpaceMuX~TM: an on-board mesh processor

摘要

The launch of regional GEO multimedia satellites will ini- tially support an Internet over satellite service in a star net- work configuration interconnecting users to an ISR While a star network is ideally suited as an access technology for the bulk of Internet traffic including web browsing and email, the increasing need to support mesh networking for other appli- cations is expected in the future. These applications include conferencing and business to business (B2B) eCommerce. For a GEO satellite in particular, this requires an on-board processor to support single hop interconnectivity between small low cost terminals. This approach achieves the fol- lowing advantages compared to a star configuration, which would require a double hop : (1) it minimises the latency by reducing the roundtrip delay in half; (2) it halves the capac- ity utilized; and (3) it provides signal regeneration, additional coding gain and switching. In general, some form of switch- ing is required to interconnect beams in a multi-beam sys- tem, typical of regional multimedia satellites which employ high gain spot beams to increase link margin and frequency reuse. In this paper the architecture and operation of the EMS SpaceMuX~TM on-board processor is described which achieves these objectives for mesh networking. The first gen- eration of SpaceMuX~TM supports the DVB-RCS air interface and will operate as a demonstration of OBP mesh network- ing technology on the Telesat Anik-F2 satellite due to be launched in the third quarter of 2002.